Posts Tagged ‘oragins of halloween’

Where Did Halloween Originate From?

Halloween is an annual holiday that happens on October 31st of every year. It is a holiday that is known for jack-o’-lanterns, trick or treating, and halloween costumes. Many children participate in this holiday solely for the creative reasoning and because it is the one time of year when they can receive free candy. Halloween has been around for thousands of years and its origins are actually quite fascinating.

There are several sources that are said to be the original origins of Halloween. It is said that Halloween could have been derived from the Celtic festival titled Samhain (originally spelled Samuin). Samhain was the festival that marked the end of the harvest season, generally from October 31st to November 1st. It was known to also mark the end of the “lighter half” of the year and to welcome the “darker half” of the year, what we commonly know as the sun rising earlier during the summer and rising later during the winter. Samhain was known to have some of the elements in it from the Festival of the Dead where they would have large bonfires and set the bones of slaughtered livestock aflame.

The Origin of the name “Halloween”

The name of this world famous holiday is claimed to be brought during the 16th century from the Scottish holiday All Hallows Day. All Hallows Day is generally the day after All-Hallows-Even, even originally meaning evening.

Halloween in Present Day Terms

Although Halloween was originally known for a cleansing ritual that involved the burning of livestock bones, it has drastically changed over the years. Our modern knowledge of Halloween involves horror movie marathons and scary halloween masks that children and adults sport during the few hours of night. A common modern day practice is trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating is when children journey from door to door on their block knocking and asking for candy from neighbors. It has become tradition that if you are willing to hand out candy, you are to leave your porch light on and if you do not wish to celebrate the holiday that night then you are to leave your light off. There are a variety of costume retailers that provide these extrinsic costumes to the general population and it is seen as a holiday that supports the creativity of each and every individual.

Halloween is a fun holiday that a lot of families celebrate all over the world. What more could you ask for than a day where you can dress up as whatever/whoever you want and get all of the free candy in the world? One thing that you have to remember is to check your candy because although there are a lot of honest civilians in the world, there are some people who enjoy sneaking bad things into candy. Halloween is a well known tradition that falls on the night of October 31st and it is quite possibly one of the most creative holidays out of the whole year!